Cleaning Your Flying Machine Without Damaging It

Who doesn’t want their favorite aircraft (or car or boat) to look all shiny and clean?

Bucket Wash is one of Composiclean’s primary products.

Composiclean has some other worthy products, like the non-adhesive, stick-on solar screens you can attach anywhere or the squeegee that I see so many airshow vendors use on their showplanes; the squeegee expands to 22 inches of wipe, handy for removing morning dew.

I know you like reading about aircraft. I like writing about them (and doing videos about them … more on that soon with a very special one in final editing right now).

However, most pilots also like their airplanes to be all clean and shiny. Well, they don’t get that way without effort and without the right products. The truth is, you can use the wrong cleaners on some aircraft components and it could cost you much more than you care to consider.

So, for your weekend reading, let me tell you about a couple cleaning product companies I’m glad are in the business. Welcome to Composiclean and iCloth Avionics.

Composiclean’s Ken Godin said, “[I saw] a lot of people doing damage to their airplanes using harsh products. I thought I should fix that.” In the process, Ken realized he had the makings of a business that would cater to enthusiasts of any vehicle that involved composite materials.

Composiclean has been in business for almost ten years and recently scored a major success. “We have been working with strategically located dealers and our own company website … but it’s time for mass distribution,” Maria said, “We are excited for the opportunity to work with a large and established distribution company as Wing Aero.”

Wing Aero focuses significantly on training items but has branched out in some other directions, now including cleaning products. As a flight instructor many years back, I recall asking the occasional student to go clean up after a flight that cause the loss of lunch, making a mess of the cockpit. We didn’t have the Right Cleaning Stuff in those early days but both myself and the humbled student probably wished we had.

Wing Aero national sales manager Jonathan Folds said, “We’ve been supplying FBOs and the general aviation industry for 29 years. We provide easy access to aviation training materials for both flight and maintenance programs, accessories, charts and now we’ve added Composiclean products.” He added a company endorsement, “Composiclean products are wonderful. We use them ourselves.”

Another product I have tried out myself is iCloth. (Yeah, big old Apple certainly has made “iThings” a part of the language, hasn’t it?) Despite the me-too name, this product has much to recommend it.

According to GA flat screen provider Aspen Avionics, “Using any chemical or material other than isopropyl alcohol will void the product warranty.” Whoa! That’s a rather serious warning.

Indeed, look at the nearby image. iCloth Avionics said “Someone hit this Garmin GNS430 with a harsh chemical. A factory bill will approach $1,000.” On top of that, it doesn’t even look clean. I’ll bet that was a bummer, so take a word from the wiser. About their individually-wrapped, no-drip, no-mess wipes, iCloth said, “[Our product] does not contain damaging NPEs, ethyl alcohol, silicone or ammonia.” They go on to report their mini wipes are used on aircraft built by Airbus, Boeing, Embraer, and Bombardier.

If it’s good enough for airplanes costing many millions of dollars, I guess it follows that you should consider iCloth for your Dynon, Garmin, MGL, and other digital screens.

I’ve also found they work well on my new Honda Odyssey that has multiple touch screens, cleaning them beautifully with no damage. Plus I’ve tried them on my Apple iDevices (iPad, iPhone, Mac) without any mishaps.

Everyone likes a clean machine. Get the right (cleaning) stuff from Composiclean or iCloth and you’ll be safer and all your flying buddies will be so impressed with your machine’s shine.